It's almost a week now since I've moved to the beautiful Emerald City that is Seattle, Washington. I'm currently living in a studio apartment without furniture...because furniture is a luxury for those with a stable job and lots of moolah (neither of which I have right now).

It's a new chapter of my life that I call "minimalist living".

But if you ever look at minimalist living, you'll notice they have really really expensive furniture...

...So it would be more accurate to say "minimalized minimalism" aka what I now dub M^2.

What does this life entail?

Well for one, there is a lack of bed. A true M^2 follower must embrace living life on the floor. The most natural poses and a true connection to the past or our beginning as the Neanderthal man means we must experience sleeping as he did.

If you must, the M^2 code concedes the use of a sleeping bag, especially if you have a hardwood floor (which I do).

There is also a lack of dining table in the kitchen/dining area. I find that this leads an M^2 follower to expand his or her creativity. I myself have been eating while sitting perched on top of kitchen counters...which for some reason makes me feel like a circus acrobat although the two don't correlate at all.

Balancing on kitchen counters is the gateway to circus acts. It's proven.

And who needs a bookcase when books piled haphazardly all over the room appears so much more chic? Plus there is the added bonus that numerous piles of books all over makes you look more bookish and learned since the amount of books you own appear to be much much more than if they are all jammed together in one pedantic bookshelf.

In all honesty though, I have nothing against furniture. Which was why I was so grateful when a couple of my neighbors lent me an air mattress, a small dining table, and a chair.

I think they pitied me when they peeked into my new establishment and saw how bare it was. But that's okay, I'll take pity furniture any day.

I've also been on the craigslist furniture prowl, pouncing on any free furniture opportunities AKA "I'm moving out and I've left furniture out on the curb in front of my house. First come first served."

Unfortunately, I'm a petite, not very strong asian girl and I am also without a car. One time I went to a street corner to see abandoned furniture...but both the coffee table and the bookshelf left there proved too heavy for my puny muscles to withstand. It was a sad sad day. I actually tried a couple times...walked away...and then came back to try again after taking those few steps, as if my measured resolve equaled more power in my limbs.

Another time, I came to the craigslist ordained street corner to find...nothing. Either 1). I got the address wrong or 2). All of the free furniture was snatched up in a rabid frenzy by Seattle furniture opportunists like myself. OR 3). The craigslist ad was a trap (the cake is a lie!) and really a lure so that people in a circling white van would jump out and kidnap Seattle furniture opportunists. I don't know what they would do with us. Harvest our kidneys. Put us in a chain gang that goes around planting trees in the Pacific Northwest.

So anyway, until the day I grow these biceps some more...or I get my first paycheck, I shall continue living the M^2 lifestyle. More on that to come.